Baltic folk art has always been a favourite of mine...and I've just discovered the work by the talented Pole, Kasia Jacquot, who sells these wonderful once-a-year-books, under her label Laikonik.
her blog link is here. Wouldn't they make a special gift for a mum to be?
All you need is one photo for each year of your child's life and a few minutes to write a brief record of significant events of that year, to create a precious keepsake of their first 18 years.
I began searching for a special kind of journalling book for Willow* and Bethany*, something I can record the day to day and special moments in, without it being to cumbersome to drag out, or precious to want write in (using pencil, then going over with pen isn't my idea of timewise).
Finding time for scrapbooking is something that eludes me, I really want to do it, but so far it's been more of a chore than something I feel passionate enough about doing.
The best solution I have come up with is this.
~ Use special quality acid free, etc photo albums for the photos, and write the what, where, when, who, and why. Being succinct takes the pressure off, but allowing myself the freedom to write more if I want to.
~ Cut the frivolous paper stuff to a mimimum.
(it's not necessary, it's expensive, time-consuming, and oftentimes overpowers your photos, which you want to be the feature)
Simple, effective, fast layouts are what I'm after.
(I'm not the ribbony, accessory type of girl anyway).
~ Journal thoughts, and moments, day-to-day things of the children, in another book that I can just write in when the moment takes me.
(Quality of pens are really important, acid free, but also non fading..buy the best you can...I have heard some stories!)
That way I don't need to wait until the photos are in the albums, before I journal.
Because by the time I get the photos juxtapositioned on the pages, I have 'lost' the freshness of the moment.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I am hoping by using this method, it will ease the brain drain, and the pressure, of having to remember everything to put in the photo album.
I'm even going to stop calling it scrapbooking, because for me it's a mindblock calling me back to the old way I used to do it, and failed.
Does any of this make any sense? This has turned out more rambly than I had hoped.
Are you passionate about recording your family's history? How do you do it? I would love to hear your ideas.
*I am sick of calling my kids mr and miss!
xx
Hi Luisa, I have 3 notebooks i jot down about events etc in and stick tickets to various activities in too. I'm not good at writing regularly in them though. They have a baby photo album each. Most photos these days don't make it to print - too many! I don't put pressure on myself about it all - anything is better than the handful of photos i have of myself as a child. So i think they're doing pretty well!
ReplyDeleteOur boys adore reading through their old baby books, but we havent't kept things up more recently. I love your idea, though.
ReplyDeleteI've found a little vintage French/Tasmanian link and am posting about it today!
And your children have beautiful names...
Gorgeous, my children also love their baby books, such cool recollections for everyone!! How soon you forget & replace one baby with another one & another one . . . love Posie
ReplyDeleteI am passionate about the idea of recording family events but hopeoless at actually doing it. I have a lot of Creative Memories products (and have been a consultant at one time or another) and love their products because they are all acid and lignen free, their pens and inks are all guaranteed to be photo safe and they aren't about 'lumpy bumpy' scrapbooking but more about preserving photos and family stories. Anyway, I just wish I had more time to do it!
ReplyDelete